NETWORKS

Fouad Al Ghanim & Sons, one of Kuwait’s largest companies selected Foundry Networks’ IronPoint 200 Wireless product for its automotive division’s new network setup within Kuwait City. Fouad Al Ghanim & Sons company is a large, diversified private enterprise consisting of more than 25 companies. Their automotive division known as Fouad Al Ghanim & sons Automotive company was formed in 2003 in order to market, sell and handle all VolksWagen, Audi, Skoda and Lamborghini models in the state of Kuwait. The network has been implemented in their combined facility having a large showroom, company offices, body repair and service garage. The network setup consists of several FastIron Edge switches along with IronPoint 200 Wireless Access points which are used for covering the entire areas. The FastIron Edge Switches (FES) located in the Data Centre have been implemented for redundancy, connecting to IBM Netfinity Oracle Linux Clusters for back office operations and EMC Clariion SAN Switches. The IronPoint 200 wireless access points, spread across the showroom and offices provide seamless wireless connection to staff and visitors (mainly car manufacturers). The project (implementation and commissioning) has been completed by Computer Data Networks, Foundry Networks Authorised Reseller. Computer Data Networks ( CDN ) is a Kuwaiti based company established to provide professional services in the fields of Information Technology & Communications. “We chose Foundry because we needed a very high performance and a highly reliable network with fully integrated wireless functionality, including high level of security and roaming support. We felt that Foundry Networks and Computer Data Networks could deliver such an infrastructure at a reasonable cost and with high level of support” said Mr. James R. MacKenzie du Lieu, Managing Director, Fouad Al Ghanim Automotive, Kuwait Mr. MacKenzie added,” Foundry’s products have proven to be extremely reliable and scalable, so naturally we looked at the IronPoint wireless LAN solution. Having Foundry deliver an integrated wired and wireless network infrastructure will simplify network management and provide us with strong security feature set, which meets our demanding requirements. Foundry’s FastIron Edge Switch (FES) series provides greater flexibility, higher reliability, enhanced security, extensive redundancy, and expanded resiliency -- while simplifying network management complexity and reducing on-going training expenses. The FES family establishes the next benchmark in edge connectivity by delivering the most adaptable feature set combined with the highest 10/100Base-TX and Gigabit Ethernet port densities. Foundry's Integrated Wireless Infrastructure strategy consists of three components; the IronPointT 200 IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards-based multi-mode full-featured access points, a SNMP-based IronPoint WiFi Management application suite, as well as a Wireless LAN software upgrade option for Foundry's popular FastIron JetCoreT modular, FastIron Edge switches. By leveraging the latest 802.11 standards, these products deliver a wireless LAN solution which offers strong security, seamless mobility, centralized management, dynamic user policies and ease of use, leading to lower long term cost of ownership “This is our first Wireless implementation within Kuwait and it has helped us tremendously. We already have some education sites and PTTs within the region already using Foundry’s wireless solution. Our IronPoint wireless solutions are truly revolutionary and provide all the features that enterprises are demanding in a leading edge wireless network solution”, said Mr. Farook Majeed, Regional Director, Foundry Networks ME. Majeed added, “We have positioned our Wireless solution in major upcoming network/project setups. Foundry Networks has been a leader in high performance, and in feature rich and cost effective networking solutions with many years of solid experience in secure data networks. Foundry understands and fills the need for fast robust networking infrastructure to run mission critical business applications. With addition of Wireless solution to our product portfolio we will now be able to provide leading edge wireless and wired service - allowing customers to integrate wireless technology into their wired network with the utmost confidence”